{"id":6549,"date":"2017-10-20T14:01:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T21:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=6549"},"modified":"2017-10-20T14:05:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T21:05:37","slug":"heres-road-map-progressive-can-defeat-dianne-feinstein-joe-garofoli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/10\/20\/heres-road-map-progressive-can-defeat-dianne-feinstein-joe-garofoli\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Here\u2019s the road map for how a progressive can defeat Dianne Feinstein&#8221; by Joe Garofoli"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-title\">\n<h5 class=\"timestamp\" title=\"2017-10-12T07:43:48Z\">October 12, 2017 (SFGate.com)<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"asset_gallery\">\n<div class=\"hst-resgallery-container \">\n<div class=\"hst-resgallery-wedge\">\n<ul class=\"hst-resgallery\">\n<li class=\"hst-resgalleryitem\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap landscape\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"landscape\" src=\"http:\/\/ww4.hdnux.com\/photos\/66\/51\/70\/14327319\/5\/920x920.jpg\" alt=\"FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2017, file photo, United States Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Feinstein, a veteran California Democrat, said Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, that she's running for another term. The 84-year-old took to Twitter to declare that &quot;I'm all in.&quot; (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu, File) Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press\" \/><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"control-panel\">\n<p><em style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><span class=\"credit\">Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associat<\/span><span class=\"credit\">ed Press.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>In this Aug. 29, 2017, file photo, United States Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Feinstein, a veteran California Democrat, said Monday, Oct. 9, 2017,<a class=\"more-caption\">\u00a0&#8230; more<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s not just Republicans \u2014 who lack a serious candidate \u2014 who were unhappy to see Sen. Dianne Feinstein announce this week that she would be seeking a sixth term. The California Left has been hoping forever that Feinstein would retire so a true progressive might replace her.<\/p>\n<p>Since that\u2019s not happening, here\u2019s their Plan B: state Senate Pro Tem Kevin de Le\u00f3n, the Los Angeles Democrat, challenges her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKevin de Le\u00f3n is running,\u201d Markos Moulitsas, the Berkeley-based founder of the nationally influential progressive political site\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/\">DailyKos<\/a>, told me Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m not telling you how I know, but he\u2019s running.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>De Le\u00f3n\u2019s people were politely mum Wednesday on that assertion. If Moulitsas is right \u2014 and I increasingly think he is, based on conversations with key Democrats and operatives this week \u2014 it is now time for Feinstein\u2019s progressive foes to put up or shut up.<\/p>\n<p>But their challenge is huge: How do you defeat an incumbent senator with near-universal name recognition, a place in history as California\u2019s first female senator, a net worth of $94 million and the party establishment tripping over themselves to say nice things about her? Just this week, one of her erstwhile challengers, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, threw a fundraiser for Feinstein and the United Farm Workers union endorsed her.<\/p>\n<p>Even Moulitsas conceded, \u201cThe task is actually incredibly difficult, to the point where Feinstein would be the prohibitive favorite from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To many progressives, DiFi is, in no particular order, a corporatist, Iraq war-mongering, single-payer-health-care-dubious, not-anti-Trump-enough, pro-Patriot Act, anti-Edward Snowden one-percenter. For starters. And she has got to go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a movement moment. It\u2019s not enough to resist,\u201d said Bill Honigman, the California state director for the national Progressive Democrats of America. \u201cYou need to offer a replacement for things that generally need to be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And it ain\u2019t going to be a Republican.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think she can be beaten in a Senate race,\u201d said former South Bay GOP Rep. Tom Campbell, whom Feinstein defeated for Senate in 2000. \u201cCertainly a Republican won\u2019t be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given the anemia of the California GOP, it will be difficult to beat Feinstein by doing anything but running to her political left \u2014 which de Le\u00f3n would be best positioned to do. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said she is \u201cnot running for Senate in 2018.\u201d Billionaire San Francisco environmentalist Tom Steyer is still Hamleting on a run and wealthy Los Angeles entrepreneur Joseph Sanberg has little name recognition.<\/p>\n<p>So, according to progressive leaders, here is the road map for how to beat DiFi:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep saying she\u2019s soft on Trump:\u00a0<\/strong>Anti-Trumpism is the breakfast of champions for progressives and many feel Feinstein hasn\u2019t touched her plate. Moulitsas and others found Feinstein\u2019s<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/politics\/article\/Feinstein-to-seek-re-election-to-the-Senate-12263782.php\">\u00a0comment \u201coffensive\u201d last month\u00a0<\/a>that Trump \u201chas the ability to learn and to change. And if he does, he can be a good president. And that\u2019s my hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More offensive to others is that Feinstein voted for 11 of President Trump\u2019s 22 Cabinet and other upper-level nominees, while fellow California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris voted to confirm only four.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has to be a referendum on Trump because she has been conciliatory,\u201d said Marcy Winograd, a leader of the California Democratic Party\u2019s 1,100-member progressive caucus. \u201cShe says you have to have patience. It\u2019s no time for patience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep asking, \u201cWhere\u2019s DiFi?\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>There are two things Feinstein rarely does: town halls and debates. That could be a liability in the social media Era of Oversharing, especially among voters under 30, as more Millennials (35 percent) disapprove of Feinstein than approve (34 percent), according to a September\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/escholarship.org\/uc\/item\/8qc9b1z0\">Berkeley IGS poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Unless things change, history may remember Campbell as the last person to debate Feinstein \u2014 and that was almost in the last millennium (2000). Feinstein hasn\u2019t deigned to debate her last two Republican Senate opponents. In 2012, her campaign manager, Bill Carrick, shrugged off a debate challenge from Republican Elizabeth Emken,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.sfgate.com\/politics\/2012\/07\/09\/uh-no-sen-feinstein-declines-to-debate-gop-opponent-elizabeth-emken\/\">telling me at the time<\/a>, \u201cThis is the sort of typical cliche move from someone (who) is 19 points down and has $25,000 in the bank and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/field.com\/fieldpollonline\/subscribers\/Rls2417.pdf\">35 percent name recognition<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe feel that her job is to represent California and not be a personality where it is about her and not us,\u201d said Aram Fischer, a leader of Indivisible San Francisco, which at 4,500 members is one of the largest local resistance groups in the nation. \u201cWe don\u2019t think that Dianne Feinstein is meeting that standard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep talking about single-payer Medicare-for-all:\u00a0<\/strong>This weekend, the National Nurses United \u2014 the Oakland-based union with 100,000 members in California \u2014 will hold 100 grassroots actions in all 80 state Assembly districts to talk about an issue on the top of progressive wish lists. Any Feinstein challenger who talks up single payer has a chance to tap into their energy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s an indication that you have an activist base that\u2019s getting active,\u201d said union spokesman Chuck Idelson.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep hoping the revolution will be nationalized:\u00a0<\/strong>A candidate not named Tom Steyer or Joe Sanberg can\u2019t keep pace with the bottomless bank of DiFi. But progressives feel money won\u2019t matter as much because the race will draw national attention \u2014 and small dollar donations from progressives around the country. If a Democrat with no political resume, like Jon Ossoff, could\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/atlanta-anchor-runs-for-georgia-6th-district\/mUu3K6wA8fqRHhs33zsHFO\/\">raise a record $30 million<\/a>\u00a0for a special House race in suburban Atlanta, imagine what someone like de Le\u00f3n, with a record of legislative accomplishment, could raise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis race will be nationalized \u2014 and I will do everything I can to make it so,\u201d said Moulitsas, whose DailyKos operation has an email list of 3 million and between 10 million and 12 million unique monthly visitors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep focusing on your voters:\u00a0<\/strong>A progressive candidate \u2014 particularly de Le\u00f3n \u2014 could be attractive to a coalition of Latinos, African Americans and Millennials, Moulitsas said. \u201cOf course, those are also the voters who don\u2019t vote (in high numbers) in midterm elections. But long term it is the right bet. That is the future of the party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Combine that coalition with white progressives and stir in the energy of new grassroots anti-Trump resistance groups like Indivisible, and a progressive candidate could have enough votes to climb into the top two finishers in a June primary.<\/p>\n<p>Look for at least de Le\u00f3n to jump in. Traditionally, it would be career suicide for a fellow Democrat to take on such a well-respected incumbent like Feinstein. But the feeling among de Le\u00f3n supporters is that even if he loses, he would be appealing to the progressive future of the party\u2019s voters.<\/p>\n<p>Running would be good for him \u2014 and good for progressives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be,\u201d Moulitsas said, \u201ca win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s senior political writer. Email:\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com\">jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com<\/a>\u00a0Twitter:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/joegarofoli\">@joegarofoli<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 12, 2017 (SFGate.com) Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press.\u00a0\u00a0In this Aug. 29, 2017, file photo, United States Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Feinstein, a veteran California Democrat, said Monday, Oct. 9, 2017,\u00a0&#8230; more &nbsp; It\u2019s not just Republicans \u2014 who lack a serious&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/10\/20\/heres-road-map-progressive-can-defeat-dianne-feinstein-joe-garofoli\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6549"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6552,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549\/revisions\/6552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}